City police caught napping, Ludhiana cops bust gang, recover boy

Although the Ludhiana police have claimed that a child-trafficking gang was operative in city and even arrested Kuldeep Kaur for kidnapping two-year-old boy Sameer from EWS Colony of Ludhiana, by raiding at her house in Mithu Basti on Friday, the city police have got no information about raids conducted by Ludhiana police.

After media informed police about Kuldeep's arrest, city police had claimed that they would also investigate on their own. Kuldeep's arrest also proved the claims of city police that there was no child-trafficking gang operating as false.

Ludhiana police had claimed that Laxmi Devi, a resident of New Baldev Nagar was the kingpin of the gang. Its members used to handover the children to Devi after moving them to several places through Kuldeep.

In September 2013, in a child-trafficking incident in Jalandhar, a father, Dharam Singh, a helper at the cremation ground of Basti Bawa Khel, had sold his 20-day-old son to New Delhi grocery shop owner Sham Lal through a receptionist of a health clinic.

On Saturday, Ludhiana police recovered Sameer after the arrest of four persons, including two women. Kuldeep was one of them. Police claimed that the accused were members of a child-trafficking gang and had wanted to sell the toddler for Rs 1.5 lakh. Following the information provided by Rani, a resident of Dhatt village in Dakha, who was arrested first, police raided house of Kuldeep in Jalandhar and recovered Sameer.

Kuldeep's husband Jagir Singh was also arrested. Ludhiana police also claimed accused had admitted to have kidnapped several children. SHO police station-8, Kewal Karishan said, "I come to know about Laxmi Devi of New Baldev Nagar area which falls into my jurisdiction from newspapers, police parties have been sent to area to collect information about Devi."

The SHO claimed that sometimes, police from other districts did not want to share secret information about raid with other police. ACP (west) Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu said he also had no information about Kuldeep's arrest from Mithu Basti area which falls into his jurisdiction.

Police yet to nab midwife for selling 20-day-old.

The city police are yet to arrest midwife Tara Rani, a mediator of the incident of selling a 20-day-old baby boy to a New Delhi-based businessman. Police have arrested the accused father, another mediator Pooja. The businessman also had surrendered before police with the baby. ACP Sandhu said police parties have been raiding at several places to arrest Tara Rani and claimed that they would be behind bar soon.